The invention relates to a bumper with attachment means to be made thereon for the purpose of mounting the bumper onto longitudinal beams of a vehicle, whereby the bumper is such that profiled section walls along with a pair of flanking walls form a hollow section, the section walls of the bumper being spaced apart forming compressive and tensile struts. The attachment means is in the form of a hollow section exhibiting at least one side wall and two transverse walls following on therefrom with a length of hollow support section for attachment to the longitudinal beam. Thereby, the hollow section of the bumper may, if desired at least in the region of the attachment means, be designed such that it is curved i.e. with respect to a transverse plane of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.
A bumper with plate-shaped attachments running transverse to the longitudinal axis of its longitudinal beam is described in EP 0 718 158 B1, pointing out that apart from the cross-sectional shape of the bumper also the design of the connection to the longitudinal beams of the vehicle influences the stability of shape and the capacity to absorb energy of deformation due to impact.
A variety of attachment means is known for mounting the bumper onto the vehicle—for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,410 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,028—these are, however, hardly able to contribute towards improving the shape-stability of a bumper.
EP 0 894 675 A1 described a bumper arrangement in which the mounting elements of the bumper broaden conically outwards causing their outer walls to lie intimately against the bumper or to converge with it.
Proposed in DE 298 23 973 U1 are particularly light bumpers which are reinforced with an additional section in load-bearing areas subjected to high loads. Thereby, the reinforcing section may also be a part of a facility for mounting the bumper. In that case the side-walls of the mouting facility expand conically outwards and come into position with the parts of the bumper section.